Portable antenna mount for trucks

ABSTRACT

An antenna mount for removably attaching a radio antenna to the bracket of a side-mounted mirror of a truck, the mount comprising telescoping upper and lower tubular members having a spring therein, means attaching hooks to each member so that said spring causes said hooks to clamp against outwardly extending portions of said mirror bracket, an antenna of a vertically telescoping type folding into a collapsed position with respect to the telescoping tubes for compact storage. The combination described in further combination with a truck and truck mirror having outwardly extending bracket portions.

United States Patent 1191 Rima [54] PORTABLE ANTENNA MOUNT FOR TRUCKS [76] Inventor: Leroy A. Rima, 10628 Boyd Street,

, Omaha, Nebr. 68134 [22] Filed: March 24, 1971 211 App1.No.: 127,512

[52] U.S. Cl. ..343/7l5, 343/720, 343/881 [51] Int. Cl. ..H0lq 1/32 [58] Field of Search ..343/71 1, 712, 713, 715, 880,

, [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Kaufman et a1. .343/713 Gergely ..343/720 1 Jan. 9, 1973 Primary Examiner-Eli Lieberman Attorney-Hiram A1 Sturges [57] ABSTRACT An antenna mount for removably attaching a radio antenna to the bracket of a side-mounted mirror of a truck, the mountcomprising telescoping upper and lower tubular members having a spring therein, means attaching hooks to each member so that said spring causes said hooks to clamp against outwardly extending portions of said mirror bracket, an antenna of a vertically telescoping type folding vinto a collapsed position with respect to the telescoping tubes for compact storage.

The combination described in further combination with a truck and truck mirror having outwardly ex tending bracket portions.

9 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTED H 9 9 3.710.339

IllIIIIIIInI'IIIIIIIIIIIIIII I NVENTOR.

PORTABLE ANTENNA MOUNT FOR TRUCKS FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention is in the field of truck radio antenna mountings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Some truckers have attached antennas to their out side mirror bracket with vise-grip pliers, but this has two disadvantages. One disadvantage is that the tubular mirror bracket becomes crushed and unsightly and weakened from being flattened out. Another disadvantage is that it is a nuisance for the operator to attach the antenna with pliers in this manner because the upper side of the truck mirror bracket is too high to reach while the trucker is standing on the ground.

The only removable attachments for attaching antennas to automotive vehicles in the prior art are devices for attaching antennas to rain guttering of automobiles. But most rain gutters are very shallow and do not form a strong support for antenna-attachment means and are, therefore, unsuitable for mounting a whipping antenna, swinging in the air in a high wind over trucks going at highway speeds.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An antenna mount for removably attaching a radio antenna to the bracket of a side-mounted mirror of a truck, the mount comprising telescoping upper and lower tubular members having a spring therein, means attaching hooks to each member so that said spring causes said hooks to clamp against outwardly extending portions of said mirror bracket, an antenna of a vertically telescoping type folding into a collapsed position with respect to the telescoping tubes for compact storage. t

The combination described in further combination with a truck and truck mirror having outwardly extending bracket portions.

The antenna being attached by a support member pivotally mounted on the upper telescoping tube and the support member having a hook mounted on it'so that the pressure of themirror bracket against the upper hook tends tohold the support member firmly in position for maintaining the elongated antenna erect.

' The support member being attached to the antenna at a point horizontally offset from the axis of pivoting of the support member so that the antenna attachment means does not strike the upper tube and interfere with folding, but rather permits compact folding.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the aerial and antenna mount of this invention as the latter would be seen looking at it from the left-hand side of FIG. 1, the

closer half portions of telescoping tubes and caps being broken away and the remainder showing in section, a portion of a spring being diagrammatically shown in dotted lines, the upper portion of the antenna being broken away and a portion of the lead-in wire being broken away.

FIG. 3 is a view of the upper portion of the antenna mount as it would be seen from the rearward side without the mirror bracket and upper portion of the antenna being shown and the lead-in cord being omitted.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1 a truck, mirror, and antenna bracket assembly is shown generally indicated at 6 having as one of its parts an outside mirror antenna bracket assembly indicated at 8 having a mirror bracket 9 attached to a truck 10 and supporting the outside mirror 12.

The bracket 9 has two approximately horizontal upper and lower bracket portions .20 and 22 which also can be called outwardly extending bracket portions 20 and 22, since they extend outwardly from the side of the truck 10.

The antenna mount of this invention is generally indicated at 24 and has a lower upwardly opening hook 30 and an upper downwardly opening hook 32.

The lower hook 30 is directly attached by a bolt 40 and rivet 42 to a telescoping hollow tubular lower portion or slidably interconnected member or tube 46 of a tubular telescoping assembly generally indicated at 50.

The lower inner tube 46 telescopes in an upper outer tube slidably interconnected member 52.

An elongated tension spring 60 extending through the tubes 46 and 52 is attached to the bolt 40 at its lower end and to a bolt at its upper end for pulling the tube assembly 50 into shorter size for continually pressing the hooks 30 and 32 against the mirror brackets 20 to hold this antenna bracketof this invention thereto.

Referring now to FIG. 1 again, at its upper end is an antenna support plate pivotally attached by the bolt 70 to the upper tube 52 for rotation about a horizontal axis 53. The plate 80 has the antenna attached to it and it will be seen that when the trucker desires to remove the antenna bracket, he simply stretches the tubes 46 and 52 apart slipping the hook 32 off of the upper bracket 20, disconnects the antenna lead-in wire on his radio, swings the plate 80 in the direction of the arrow 81 until the antenna is in folded position parallel to the tubes 46 and 52, and takes the antenna with him to put'on the next truck which is assigned to him.

The upper end of the tube 52 has a cap closing it from the weather and lower end of the lower tube 46 has a cap 162 for the same purpose and to protect a user from the sharp edges of the tube.

In FIG. 3, it will be seen that one of the upper edges of the support plate 80 and shown at 210 is slanted at an angle with respect to the vertical and horizontal as i also is one of.the lower edges of-the plate 80 as seen at 212 for purposes of making the'bracket 80 of lesser wind resistance, although it is originally cut from rectangular material.

The antenna lead-in cord 250 is attached to the antenna 100 by an attachment means 254,- which latter is attached to the plate 80 through a hole therein. The cord 250 is suitably fixed to the antenna 100 by means shown at" 260 and the remainder of the cord 250, not shown, extends into the cab of the truck by extending around aside of the door.

A rubber washer 280 surrounds the bolt 70 between the plate 80 and the upper tube 52 to seal rain out of the upper tube.

I claim:

1. In combination: a truck having a mirror on its outer side, a bracket supporting said mirror, said bracket having upper and lower bracket portions extending outwardly from said side of said truck, a portable antenna mount for trucks comprising upper and lower slidably interconnected members slidable with respect to each other in a vertical direction, said upper interconnected member being generally above and lapping the lower one of said interconnected members, a lower hook means attached to the lower slidably interconnected member and extending outwardly from a side thereof, an antenna support member, means attaching said support member to one of said slidably interconnected members, an upper hook means disposed above said first-mentioned hook, and means attaching said upper hook means to an upper portion of said mount, said lower hook means receiving therein the lower one of said outwardly extending bracket portions, and said upper hook means being disposed receiving therein the upper one of said outwardly extending bracket portions, spring means, means attaching said spring means to said slidably interconnected members in a manner for causing said spring means to urge said interconnected members in a direction parallel to a linev between said upper and lower hook means and such that said hook means each press against their respective outwardly extending bracket portion in a manner for maintaining said bracket portions in said hook means respectively for firmly attaching said mount on said bracket, and an antenna attached to said antenna support member and extending upwardly therefrom.

2. The combination of claim 1 in which said antenna support member is pivotally attached to the upper one of said slidably interconnected members in a manner for pivoting about an axis transverse to a line extending between said hooks whereby said antenna mount, when removed from said mirror bracket, can be collapsed so as to be easily portable by pivoting said support member so that said antenna is in alignment with a line between said hook means.

3. The combination of claim 2 in which said upper hook means is attached to said antenna support member.

4. The combination of claim 3 in which said upper hook means is disposed below said pivot axis.

5. The combination of claim 2 in which said antenna is attached 'to said antenna support member by means extending into a plane disposed at a right angle to said pivot axis, which plane is in intersection with the upper one of said slidably interconnected members, the place of attachment of the lower portion of said antenna to said support member being offset horizontally from said pivot axis at times when said antenna mount is in position on said mirror bracket whereby said antenna support member can be pivoted into a position for placing said elongated antenna in parallelism with a line extending between said upper and lower hook means without interference from the said extending portion of said antenna attachment means.

6. The combination of claim 1 in which said slidably interconnected members comprise two tubes, said spring means being disposed inside said tubes.

7. The combination of claim 6 in which said upper tube is on the outside of the lower tube to prevent water from raining into space between said tubes.

8. The combination of claim 6 in which cap means are disposed over the top of said upper tube and over the bottom of said lower tube.

9. The combination of claim 6 in which a shoulder means is disposed on the inner one of said tubes in a position so as to be engaged by the adjacent end of the upper one of said tubes to prevent excessive collapse of said two slidably interconnected members beyond the combined length sufficient so as to be as long as the minimum length of said antenna, said antenna being a telescoping antenna having a minimum length when it is collapsed. 

1. In combination: a truck having a mirror on its outer side, a bracket supporting said mirror, said bracket having upper and lower bracket portions extending outwardly from said side of said truck, a portable antenna mount for trucks comprising upper and lower slidably interconnected members slidable with respect to each other in a vertical direction, said upper interconnected member being generally above and laPping the lower one of said interconnected members, a lower hook means attached to the lower slidably interconnected member and extending outwardly from a side thereof, an antenna support member, means attaching said support member to one of said slidably interconnected members, an upper hook means disposed above said first-mentioned hook, and means attaching said upper hook means to an upper portion of said mount, said lower hook means receiving therein the lower one of said outwardly extending bracket portions, and said upper hook means being disposed receiving therein the upper one of said outwardly extending bracket portions, spring means, means attaching said spring means to said slidably interconnected members in a manner for causing said spring means to urge said interconnected members in a direction parallel to a line between said upper and lower hook means and such that said hook means each press against their respective outwardly extending bracket portion in a manner for maintaining said bracket portions in said hook means respectively for firmly attaching said mount on said bracket, and an antenna attached to said antenna support member and extending upwardly therefrom.
 2. The combination of claim 1 in which said antenna support member is pivotally attached to the upper one of said slidably interconnected members in a manner for pivoting about an axis transverse to a line extending between said hooks whereby said antenna mount, when removed from said mirror bracket, can be collapsed so as to be easily portable by pivoting said support member so that said antenna is in alignment with a line between said hook means.
 3. The combination of claim 2 in which said upper hook means is attached to said antenna support member.
 4. The combination of claim 3 in which said upper hook means is disposed below said pivot axis.
 5. The combination of claim 2 in which said antenna is attached to said antenna support member by means extending into a plane disposed at a right angle to said pivot axis, which plane is in intersection with the upper one of said slidably interconnected members, the place of attachment of the lower portion of said antenna to said support member being offset horizontally from said pivot axis at times when said antenna mount is in position on said mirror bracket whereby said antenna support member can be pivoted into a position for placing said elongated antenna in parallelism with a line extending between said upper and lower hook means without interference from the said extending portion of said antenna attachment means.
 6. The combination of claim 1 in which said slidably interconnected members comprise two tubes, said spring means being disposed inside said tubes.
 7. The combination of claim 6 in which said upper tube is on the outside of the lower tube to prevent water from raining into space between said tubes.
 8. The combination of claim 6 in which cap means are disposed over the top of said upper tube and over the bottom of said lower tube.
 9. The combination of claim 6 in which a shoulder means is disposed on the inner one of said tubes in a position so as to be engaged by the adjacent end of the upper one of said tubes to prevent excessive collapse of said two slidably interconnected members beyond the combined length sufficient so as to be as long as the minimum length of said antenna, said antenna being a telescoping antenna having a minimum length when it is collapsed. 